Golden Gate Transit bus riders will soon have Wi-Fi available again after an initial foray into the technology failed in part due to Marin's hilly topography.

Golden Gate Transit officials pulled the plug on Wi-Fi in April 2013 because of spotty service, leaving passengers without an easy way to check email, start work early or just surf the Internet.

"The vendor went out of business and the coverage was not very good," Denis Mulligan, bridge district general manager, told the Building and Operations Committee Thursday.

Now officials are confident they have addressed issues and expect to get the technology on all 180 Golden Gate Transit buses in about two months.

The district contacted Google, AC Transit, Genentech, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and others to determine what type of Wi-Fi service works best.

The district is "confident this solution will provide an added value service for our customers," said Marc Shorr, director of corporate technology for the district.

Golden Gate Transit has about 20,000 daily passengers during the work week. The system will use Verizon and AT&T modems.

"We have a huge service area and in some areas Verizon is better and in other areas AT&T is," Mulligan said. "It will be a seamless transfer (between services.)"

The equipment has already been tested in the field with good results, officials said.

A contract with Premier Wireless Services of Sunnyvale for $508,000 to get the system up and running was approved Thursday by the committee. The bridge board is expected to do the same Friday. In all, the project will cost the district $980,000. More customers are expected to ride buses because of the addition of Wi-Fi, Mulligan said.

The original bus Wi-Fi project cost the district about $245,000 to get up and running in 2011. While the district paid for the hardware, the Wi-Fi service itself was provided free by Los Angles-based FreeFi Networks, which hoped to make up the cost in advertising to the district's clientele. But in late 2012 FreeFi Networks went out of business.

In a separate project being studied, buses may also be outfitted with electrical plugs.

"They could be used to charge cellphones and lap tops. Some of our customers ride the bus for a long time," Mulligan said.

Meanwhile, there are also plans to provide Wi-Fi to the more than 7,000 daily ferry riders who take boats into San Francisco from Larkspur and Sausalito. District officials were initially stymied because while water is a good conduit for radio signals, it reflects cell networks. But officials said they are working toward a solution.